The Crown Prince Who Raises a Side Character-Chapter 14: New Adventurer Bern (12). Desperation

After leaving Renya to take care of the clean-up, Bern escorted Blanca back to the inn where she was staying.

Immediately after the battle, Blanca had been stunned and speechless at Bern’s words and actions. But as time passed, her expression grew darker, and now, it was obvious to anyone that she was openly displaying a deep sense of melancholy.

Bern scratched his cheek and spoke to Blanca.

“You don’t seem to be in the best state today. Why don’t you get some rest, and we’ll meet tomorrow? I’ve reserved the room next to yours, so if anything comes up, I’ll be able to respond right away. Please rest easy—”

“Bern. Wait, can you spare some time?”

Blanca interrupted, looking at him with a determined expression in her eyes.

Bern hesitated for a moment, then sat back down in the chair.

Blanca’s story began.

***

Blanca’s mother had been a mage.

This wasn’t some metaphor about how a child might see their parents as magical figures.

Her mother really did spit fire from thin air, and could heal others just by touching them.

Magic is a rare and revered discipline.

Spells like Fire from Wood and Ice from Water—the most basic and often dismissed magic—are so expensive that commoners can barely even dream of them, and even when they manage to get their hands on them, they’re usually fake.

In that sense, it was undeniably strange for a housewife in a rural village, not even someone with a noble title, to be able to expertly handle multiple types of magic.

But young Blanca couldn’t understand this strangeness.

Her mother’s appearance, far too clean and beautiful to be a typical peasant woman.

The father she had never seen, who had never appeared in her life.

A worn sword, carefully maintained by her mother in a corner of their home.

The basics of reading and writing, along with the manners at the dinner table, which she had been expected to learn as a matter of course.

It wasn’t until she grew up and entered society, gaining more experience, that she realized all those things had been far from ordinary. But as a young girl, she didn’t have the insight to understand the value of what she had.

Their life as mother and daughter was relatively prosperous.

Blanca’s mother, with her beauty and dignity, was an odd presence in the rural village, but she was too valuable to be rejected.

In a village with no temple for priests and no proper apothecary, how could they possibly turn away a mage who could heal people with just a touch?

Blanca’s mother didn’t ask for anything in return when healing the villagers, but because of that, people would often offer her small “gifts” out of gratitude.

When their families or loved ones were sick or injured, it couldn’t hurt to be on good terms with the only person who could heal them.

The respect and affection the villagers had for Blanca’s mother was passed down to Blanca, and she vaguely sensed that.

Blanca loved her mother, and her mother loved her in return.

Their peaceful and happy days seemed like they would continue forever.

But that happiness was abruptly stolen from them.

A thick and toxic purple mist.

Terrible, horrifying screams echoed from within it.

The hunting uncle, who had once cheerfully handed her some wild fruits, now wandered the streets with half his head smashed open, leaking foul fluids.

The third son of the village chief, who had boasted about becoming an adventurer and leaving the village, now howled like a beast and bit into his brother’s neck.

The dead turned on the living, and the victims who had been killed became the aggressors, slaughtering others in turn.

The village became a living hell.

Through all the chaos, the villagers’ rallying point was Blanca’s mother.

The flames she used to bake pies for Blanca became the fire that burned the dead to ash, and the villagers clung to her in order to survive.

Finally, when all the bodies had been dealt with and hope seemed to return to the faces of the villagers, that was when it appeared.

“Quite an unexpected stroke of luck. I thought I was just replenishing some lowly minions, but to find a new source of heart material in a place like this...”

A lich, with a skull as pale as ash and glowing blue fire where its eyes should be, spoke in an upbeat tone as if it had found a coin on the street.

Neither Blanca nor her mother nor any of the villagers could argue with the lich.

With a simple wave of its hand, the army of the dead they had just defeated rose again.

Seeing the lich casually undo their hard-earned success, the villagers were filled with despair.

There was only one who remained trembling but still determined: Blanca’s mother.

Looking at her, the lich, as though struck by some amusing idea, spoke in a warm, almost affectionate tone.

“It would be easy for me to kill you all and take your blood and souls... but I’m in a very good mood right now. So, I’ll show mercy.”

“If you offer me your soul, I won’t touch the others.”

The offer of mercy was, in fact, a cruel poison.

In magic, consent is incredibly important.

A contract made forcibly through external power is weak compared to one made by the person’s own consent.

It would be better to be killed by the lich and have one’s soul taken, but if you willingly offer your soul, the binding magic is far stronger than any prison or shackles.

You would become the lich’s eternal slave.

Young Blanca didn’t understand this magical principle.

But looking at the glistening, geometric light in the lich’s eyes, she instinctively knew that she couldn’t just let this happen.

Blanca, hiding with the other children in the house, ran to her mother.

She clung to her mother’s legs, crying, begging her not to go, not to do it.

When she thought back on her actions later, Blanca hated her younger self so much she wished she could have killed her.

What had she hoped to accomplish by throwing a tantrum in front of her mother? She had revealed her mother’s weakness to the lich. How could she have done such a foolish and stupid thing?

If she had truly wanted to help her mother, she shouldn’t have gone to her side at that moment.

If only she had run in the opposite direction. If only she had lightened her mother’s burden, maybe her mother wouldn’t have made that choice.

Her mother, comforting her crying daughter, handed her the staff she had been holding.

“I’m sorry, my daughter. If I’d known this would happen, I would have taught you more, sooner.”

“Eat well, don’t speak badly, practice your magic regularly.”

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“I love you, Blanca.”

That was the last image of Blanca’s mother that she remembered.

With the warm light that leaked from her mother’s hand, the girl fell into a deep sleep, and when she woke up, everything had already ended.

When Blanca woke up, she appealed to the surviving villagers.

“We have to save my mother. Please help me.”

The adults, who had always shown affection for Blanca, didn’t respond to her plea.

No, they tried to stop her, fearing that if Blanca acted hastily, the lich might become angry.

Disappointed, Blanca appealed to the lord who ruled the territory where the village was located.

“A wicked lich has invaded the village. It must still be somewhere in the territory, please defeat it.”

The lord refused to meet with her.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

The soldiers, whose job was to protect the people, realized that Blanca’s staff and sword were valuable items, and used the excuse of a security check to try and seize them.

After escaping the soldiers, Blanca returned to the village, disposing of everything except her mother’s staff and sword.

With the money she had made, she went to the Adventurers’ Guild.

“I want to request a commission. Please defeat the lich.”

The employee who would later become the manager of the Eastern Branch looked at Blanca, who handed him a purse full of coins, with a complex expression, but still accepted the request without hesitation.

However, even if a request was accepted by the guild, it meant nothing if no adventurer took on the task.

The skilled adventurers, knowing how dangerous a lich was, refused to take on the task, and the amateurs, blinded by money, couldn’t even defeat a single undead creature summoned by the lich and ran away.

After this happened about three times, the commission to hunt the lich became something no one would even consider, and Blanca finally realized the truth.

Unless she acted herself, no one would come to save her mother.

And so, Blanca became an adventurer.

Many adventurers wanted a mage as a companion, and Blanca had inherited her mother’s staff.

Though her innate magical ability wasn’t particularly strong, with the power of the staff, she could cast strong spells.

She quickly rose in rank as an adventurer and got to know some talented companions.

If she continued this way, just a little further, she thought.

Then, she would really be able to defeat that cursed lich and free her mother.

Another misfortune struck exactly when she was thinking this.

Crack.

As she attempted to use the most powerful spell she knew against a giant orc, a strange, ominous crack rang out from her staff.

The magic went out of control, and the intense flames didn’t hit the orc but instead headed toward a noble’s hunting grounds, starting a fire.

The orc was eventually defeated by her remaining companions, but after that, Blanca’s journey was a constant downhill.

The noble whose hunting grounds had burned demanded a huge compensation, which became a debt that Blanca had to repay.

Had Blanca been at her full strength, she might have had a chance to repay it, but without her staff, her magic was far weaker than before.

While she could only use ice magic, Karina, who secretly burned with jealousy over Blanca’s ability to use fire, healing, and enhancement magic, seized the opportunity to recruit a new healer. Before long, Blanca was expelled from the party.

Blanca didn’t resist.

She realized that her skills, which she had thought were growing, had been nothing more than a bubble dependent on her mother all along, and she was equally shocked.

She tried to climb back up with a new party, but that, too, was not easy.

Blanca lacked the ability to keep up with the Third Rank adventurers, and the Second Rank adventurers, who were higher up than her, sneered at her, mocking her fallen position.

Pragmatic adventurers, who weren’t swayed by jealousy or petty resentment, knew her abilities were still useful, but once they found out she was fixated on the impossible goal of hunting the lich, they cut ties with her.

Her situation worsened, and eventually, unable to even repay the interest on her debt, she took a job as a receptionist.

It was then that she found someone.

Someone who seemed to have both the madness and ability to fit her ridiculous goal.

***

“That person was you, Bern.”

Blanca, having told a much longer story than Bern had expected, dropped her shoulders in exhaustion.

“You had exceptional potential, and you were naive enough to say you dreamed of being an adventurer. I thought that if I played the role of a senior and burdened you with my debts... it would help me fulfill my goal in many ways. Well, that’s what I thought.”

Bern tilted his head, looking puzzled.

“Is that no longer the case? I don’t think you’ve shown any shortcomings.”

Blanca let out a deep sigh [N O V E L I G H T] before changing the subject.

“In the goblin extermination mission, I was just your backup. Even without the herbs for chasing goblins, or without using flame magic, you would have completed the mission somehow.”

Realizing this fact again as she recalled the mission, she felt discouraged, but still, she didn’t let it defeat her.

This was just the first request. She could do better next time.

She had experience as an adventurer, and she thought that if she used it, she could still be of help. That’s what she believed.

However, the events that had just occurred showed her that those expectations were far from accurate.

“My old companions, though their personalities were rough, were still outstanding in terms of skill. It wasn’t for nothing that our entire party reached Fourth Rank. But you—”

She paused and then continued.

“You defeated an entire quasi-Fourth Rank party on your own, without even a scratch. If there’s someone who can overwhelm a Fourth Rank party alone, what do you think their rank would be?”

No matter how optimistic she was, even the lowest Fourth Rank, or perhaps even reaching Fifth Rank, was possible.

And that meant that Bern, at this point, was a skill level close to the peak of the Adventurers’ Guild.

Would rank even matter to someone like that?

Would her ‘petty tricks,’ which she had built up over time, even hold value against such an individual?

Bern had asked her for knowledge and experience as an adventurer, but as far as Blanca was concerned, no amount of that could balance out the immense strength Bern possessed.

Since losing her mother and traveling the world, Blanca had learned one thing: relationships where one side only gives never end well.

Right now, Bern seemed to have a favorable view of her.

But how long would that favor last?

To him, she could easily be replaced. That was the worst possible scenario.

And so, in order to prevent that...

Blanca’s coat slipped off her shoulders.

As they stood close enough to feel each other’s body heat, Blanca spoke to Bern.

“I’ll teach you what I know as an adventurer. I won’t ask about your secrets. That’s all you asked for before... but is that still the case? Do you still have nothing else you want from me? Just say it. I’ll do anything.”